It’s normal to be afraid. And at this time of year – Halloween – it’s encouraged! Why else would people deliberately smear their faces with blood, wear fangs and carry daggers and broomsticks around with them?

Or, like in the picture above, why else would I sit for four hours in make up to look like a Roy Lichtenstein painting – and give people a little bit of a scare?

But is fear holding you back? YES! Let’s look at the different types of fear in marketing. Hold my hand, let’s jump in together..

Fear of sharing too much

Yes, this is very common. Especially in the UK. People think that they will either reveal too much or sound like they’re bragging. Well – it’s important to share your successes, otherwise, what’s the point of having them? Private, secret successes? Who needs that? And – when it comes to revealing too much – you know “people buy people” and I have a slideshare presentation all about how you can show personality in your marketing. You don’t have to reveal everything. Only the parts that matter – your strong intelligent opinions, your big goals to change things around here, and stories about the work you love to do.

Fear of rejection

Sometimes, there is an feeling that you would put all this effort into your marketing, and people won’t bite – or buy. You would be embarrassed. You know what? You can’t please all the people all the time. But if you have clients now, then there are other people out there who could also be your clients, if they only just knew a bit more about you. Building the “know, like and trust” factor by blogging, showing personality, and interacting with others on social media will mean more people will get to know you and the magical things you do.

Fear of “not doing it right”

You can only get better at your own marketing by doing marketing. If it starts out not so great, it will improve if you keep doing it. Check out this post by Marie Forleo to see how she progressed with her marketing.

Fear of wasting time and/or money

I hear you. No one wants to waste time on marketing. We want it to work! And we don’t want to spend the money in the wrong place. I have to say, I see people doing both, all the time. It’s really a matter of educating yourself, over time, so you can see what works and what doesn’t. What resonates and what doesn’t. What’s professional and what’s amateur.

Fear of ridicule

Oh yeah, people might make fun of you. I have put up a picture of myself in this post. Someone might make fun of me. I am slightly worried about this one myself. But, marketing is too important to my business for me to hide away.

Doing a good professional job will help avoid too much ridicule though. Do your quality control. Check how things work, test things, reread things – concentrate on the detail so you are “dotting the bloodshot eyes” and “crossing the crucifix t’s”

Fear of success

Yes, this is a serious one. If you have a business with people in it, chances are you have a capacity limit for production or service. So, if you suddenly were inundated with enquiries/leads – perhaps you couldn’t cope. What if you can’t handle the sudden influx?
The answer here is – just do it. What are you in business for? If you get that kind of reaction, you can always say “let’s put you on a waiting list” – or you can grow your team to handle the new work. But to be honest, huge influxes are rare in business today. If you are experiencing too much success because of your marketing – please get in touch. As Daniel Priestley says – I can make three phone calls. Oh, and so can you!

Fear of fame

How horrible would it be to be scrutinised in a celebrity magazine, with people asking questions like “has he had Botox?” or “You know I never thought she was all that”. People can be cruel. But the laws of the universe say that you might get a few haters alongside the many who love and admire you. It’s ok. Read this post and you will feel better.

Fear of being left behind

This can also be related to feelings of abandonmont you may have had as a child. And you can also link this to “FOMO” – fear of missing out.

But with the all the channels around (blogs, Twitter, G+, Facebook, LinkedIn etc) and all the ways of marketing (email marketing, content marketing, sponsored advertising, PPC, syndication, affiliate marketing etc) and platforms (WordPress, Flickr, Tumblr, Mailchimp, Ghost, Medium etc) and apps (Evernote, Pocket, Buffer, IFTTT etc) it’s definitely overwhelming and can seem hard to keep up. My advice? Find a couple of good resources, (like this blog) read a new blog post each week, ask questions, and you will gather the awareness needed. If you are open to learning, and something is important, it will find it’s way into your consciousness.

Only marketing after all

I hope that this has left you feeling fortified and pacified – more confident to go forth and share your stories, show your personality, and make new business friends. If you want to talk to me about any of this, just get in touch! I’m not scary in the slightest!

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About the Author

Keren Lerner

Keren is the founder and CEO of Top Left Design and runs it with passion and drive. She truly believes that communication is the key to making the world a better place and loves how great design and marketing makes it easier to communicate and understand.